OUR NATION'S MINER

MIND CONTROL PORT

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE 80s

The mind control port of Our Nation's Miner provides users with an opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the retro, 80s and sci-fi-inspired arcade world. The framework behind this port has been built to take advantage of emerging neuroprocessing technologies which will allow users to experience the gameplay while they are sleeping - meaning that people will now be able to live out their childhood dream of pulling an all-nighter inside of an arcade.

To find out more about our stance on using neuroprocessing technologies with games, check out our page BRAINS ON GAMES.

FOR THE EMPIRE

It's 1984, and in a the basement of a quiet arcade store somewhere in the UK, an experimental arcade machine is gathering dust.

The headline game: Our Nation's Miner!A game that puts the player in the shoes of a synthetic clone, waking up centuries too late into a spacefaring empire that has now been overrun with a peculiar mix of rogue AI.

Clones were originally designed to act as miners, collecting valuable resources for the glory of their empire. Now that self-aware technology has taken over, the clone must adapt to the situation and learn to fight for survival.

EXCLUSIVE MIND-CONTROLLED FEATURES

Taking advantage of this new technology, the port has been able to integrate new features that reactto the user's thoughts and feelings in exciting and unpredictable ways. All of these features can be enabled and disabled as a matter of personal preference.

PROCEDURAL INFLUENCES

GENERATED ENVIRONMENTSThe game arenas are being designed so that they are adaptive to the player's feelings. As they play, elements of the arena will change to try and incite the player into feeling a different way. For example, if the player starts losing focus and getting bored, new and randomly generated areas will open up around the player's position and try to lure them in. These areas are constructed partially by design, with certain detailed elements being generated on-the-fly in accordance to neurological variables. Extension areas have an intrinsic purpose to them and this will decide whether or not they are suitable to be added at the given moment. For example, some areas are meant to act as safe-havens to give players a sense of serenity with soothing visuals and audio. Other areas are intended to test their mind by putting them through puzzling scenarios, with the intention of breaking repetition and stopping users from playing on autopilot.

AI CHANGESBoth the behaviour and aesthetics of the NPC entities in the game will also be reactive to feelings. Stressed-out players may encounter less aggressive entities with a mechanical demeanour, whereas players that are overly-calm may encounter more aggressive entities with menacing and animalistic decoration. Specific changes in terms of AI parameters and visual morphing will be randomly generated using a suite of state-of-mind measurements as inputs.

PLAYER-CONTROLLED INFLUENCES

Not all of the exclusive port features are intended to manipulate the player's thoughts and feelings - some features allow the player to manipulate the game by intention alone. The reason behind this is to give players an experience which allows them to feel both in and out of control depending on their desires.

MIRRORED ASSERTIVENESS - VS - RANDOMLY GENERATED NPC PERSONALITIESIf the player focuses their mentality on an NPC and expresses disdain or anger towards them, it could scare the AI into running away or keeping distance. Every single AI has a slightly different personality profile due to semi-random generation which means the interaction between player and NPC will be unique with every play-session.

INCREASING POWERIf the player intentionally tenses up and increases focus while playing, the power output of their ship with be higher, and they will consequently do more damage. This provides an incentive for users to learn how to maintain focus for extended periods of time.

THE POWER OF FRUSTRATIONIt's a common feeling for players to feel frustration when struggling with difficult gameplay challenges. In this game, if a player has an intense moment of frustration that crosses a threshold of normality, a pulse will emanate from their ship with a strength that is proportional to the intensity of the moment of frustration, which will go on to severely damage nearby NPCs and the environment. This will provide satisfaction, however they will not reap the full benefit of rewards as we do not want to attach an incentive to frustration. Doing this should assist in preventing prolonged sessions of agitation and help in teaching the players to better control their anger.

All of these features contribute towards the ultimate goal of removing the wall between reality and the game world. We are lucky to be able to work with these technologies and are excited to show you more.

Our Nation's Miner was originally released in Q4 2015.That original version (currently available on Steam) failed to meet internal standards and as a result, it has been rebuilt from the ground-up to provide a more enjoyable experience. This has also provided Lord Bytesworth with an opportunity to build new development tools and efficient content development pipelines which will continue to increase output quality and quantity over the next few years.